


In Your Element

by crypticc



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 80s Music, Boys Kissing, Coming Out, Cuddling, Eventual Smut, Flirting, Fluff, Frottage, Give Jonathan Byers a break!, Homophobia, Light Angst, M/M, Photography, Slurs, Smut, Steve Harrington is so gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-06-28 07:39:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19807732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crypticc/pseuds/crypticc
Summary: Jonathan Byers has always been the one to take the pictures, and surprisingly he’s not fond of photographing himself. But when he enters a competition through the school’s photography club, he needs to find the right person to take his place behind the camera. Who would’ve guessed that Steve Harrington would be the one?





	1. Getting Started

“This week, the photography club will be hosting a new competition!” Janet Smith, head of ‘Hawkins High Photography Club’, spoke loudly to the group of people gathered in one of the schools small conference rooms which was where most of the club’s meetings were held.

Jonathan Byers, out of lack of anything better to do with his time, joined the club at the beginning of his sophomore year and he’s been quite comfortable meeting every Wednesday afternoon even though he doesn’t really talk to any one. He looked up from his hands, tuning into what Janet was saying.

“With the help of all of you, I have decided that the theme of this competition will be titled “In Your Element’. I want 2 pictures from each of you that shows everyone who you are, what makes you...well, you! Whether that’s a photograph of something that captures your personality or your interests, YOU must be in the photo. That’s really the only requirement, so I expect this to be fairly easy!” Janet went to speak again but was interrupted by an alarm clock, which meant that it was 5 pm. “I want all of your submissions handed in to me by the end of this month, have fun guys!” With that, Janet flashed a smile at the small crowd and began packing up her belongings.

Jonathan watched as everyone got up, taking this time to think a little bit about the competition. Even though he’s taken well over a thousand photos since he got his camera in freshman year, there isn’t a single one of him exclusively. The closest he has are probably pictures of him with Will or his mother. Maybe this isn’t going to be as easy as Janet said.

On the drive home he thinks about himself, what he likes, what he does on a daily basis, trying to brainstorm good photo ideas. Before he knows it, he’s pulling into the gravel driveway of his house. He enters and is immediately greeted by his mother who is cooking dinner, and receives a wave from Will who is making the table. “Dinner should be ready in about 10 minutes.” Joyce shouted to him as he walked down the hall. “Got it mom!” Jonathan yelled back.

As soon as he entered his room, he dropped his things and flopped onto his bed. He started thinking about who to ask to take the photos. He first thought of his mother, but she didn’t have much experience with cameras so that was a quick no. He moved on to Nancy, she seemed like the only other option, so he decided that he would ask her tomorrow if she could help him out.

Suddenly there was a loud banging at his door. “Jonathan! Dinner is ready!” Will yelled comically. Jonathan heard his mother yell at him for being so loud. He got up and opened the door, “This place is a madhouse!” he yelled back with a joyous tone.

The rest of the night went by smoothly, he ate dinner pretty quickly then decided to shower before bed so he didn’t have to worry about it in the morning. He pulled on a pair of boxers and laid down on his small bed. He rolled over and stared out of his window, he noticed that it was slightly open but he sort of just ignored it and went to sleep.

-

It was Thursday. September 6th, 1984. Roughly 24 days until his submissions were due for the photography contest.

Jonathan woke up to the ear-piercing noise of his alarm clock. He rolled over and smashed the button on top to shut it up. He forced his eyes open, 6:15am. He rose out of bed and quickly threw on one of his signature outfits; light denim jeans with a black shirt tucked in and a dark jean jacket over it.

Due to fact that is was September, Hawkins looked pretty yet dead at the same time. Jonathan liked it, he liked most things that seemed to be two things at once, things with double meanings . It’s probably why he enjoys music so much, with the metaphors and all. Speaking of music, as soon as he walked out into the kitchen, he heard music playing from the radio in the living room. He tuned in and realized it was an overplayed Madonna song, then decided to tune out. “Jonathan sweetheart, can you drive Will to school? I have to stop somewhere before work.” Jonathan didn’t even notice that she was sitting at the dining room table, and jumped a little when she started speaking. “O-Oh yea, sure mom. Where is he anyways?” He asked as he looked around, seeing if he didn’t realize Will sitting at the table too. “Surprisingly he got up early, he’s waiting outside for you.” She said before quickly shoving a piece of toast into her mouth. “I love you, have a good day!” She called before grabbing her keys and leaving in a rush. Jonathan smiled and yelled a quick ‘I love you too’ before she shut the door. He stood there for a bit before realizing he had to be at school, then gathered his things and rushed out the door just like his mother.

“Hey, hey! Get up, we gotta go!” Jonathan called to Will as he locked the front door. “What do you mean? I’M the one who’s been waiting for YOU for like 15 minutes!” Will retorted. “Doesn’t matter, let’s go!”

-

School went by pretty fast that day, before he knew it he was leaving his math class to go to lunch. He reminded himself to ask Nancy for help with his competition. As he entered the cafeteria, he immediately spotted Nancy at their normal table, but he noticed that someone was with her. Steve Harrington.

“Seriously? Goddamnit.” Jonathan whispered to himself before taking a deep breath and walking over to the table. Nancy greeted him as he sat down across from her and Steve. He glared at Steve, and Steve seemed to glare back at him.

“Oh right, Steve had a falling out with his friends-“

“Hey! It wasn’t a ‘falling out’, I realized that they were assholes and ditched ‘em!” Steve argued. 

“Right, um, so I invited him to sit with us! Is that ok?” Nancy clearly felt bad for Steve, and Jonathan didn’t have the heart to tell her no. “Uh, yea... that’s fine.” He said quietly. “Hey Nance, can I ask for a favor?” He eventually asked. “Of course, what do you need?”

Jonathan looked up and instead of looking at Nancy, his eyes seemed to be pulled towards Steve’s. He was watching him, not in a weird way but just sort of...sitting there looking at Jonathan speak. It made him feel weird inside. He eventually tore his eyes away from Steve and focused on Nancy.

“Well, the photography club is hosting a new competition. It requires someone to take photos of me and I figured your the best bet I have.” He spoke softly. Steve shifted in his chair which caused his eyes to dart in his direction. He could’ve sworn he saw Steve smirk at him. Jonathan felt his palms get a little sweaty so he quickly glanced back at Nancy.

“Oh...I’m not sure if I can! I have to work late every day next week and I have lots of studying to do for my classes, they really aren’t letting up on me this year.” She said with a short laugh. “I’m sorry Jonatha-“

“I’ll do it.”

Both Jonathan and Nancy stared at Steve this time. Steve looked at the two of them with a confused look.

“What? How hard could it be to hold a camera and press a button?” Steve asked.

Jonathan let out a small chuckle of some sort, which grabbed Steve’s attention. He looked up at Steve once again, he looked a little offended and seemed to be serious about the topic. Jonathan quickly stopped laughing and felt a little awkward.

“W-Well my camera isn’t necessarily the easiest to operate, and uh... taking good photos worthy of winning a competition is harder than it seems.” He explained.

Steve’s face changed, it seemed to soften almost. “I guess so, but I’m sure you’ll be good at teaching me how to do it as good as you do.”

Jonathan was taken aback by Steve’s compliment, and he probably showed it too due to the smile on Steve’s face. He tried his best to shoot him a smile back, but he could tell that he still looked as shy and timid as ever.

Nancy was the first to speak up. “Then it’s settled! Steve can help you with your pictures, when do you need them by?“

“End of this month.” Jonathan answered.

“Dude we got plenty of time then! I’m sure we’ll get the perfect picture in just a few days!” 

Jonathan knew that it would take much longer than that, but couldn’t help the smile that was creeping its way onto his face due to Steve’s optimism. He hasn’t spoken to or even seen Steve since last year when...everything happened. It seems like he’s changed, and Jonathan could really get used to this new Steve.

“So, when do we start?”


	2. First Lesson In Photography

The two boys eventually made a plan to meet up at Jonathan’s house after school. Steve seemed surprisingly eager to come over to the Byers’ house again, Jonathan would’ve totally expected him to say something like “dude i’m not going over there, i might get almost killed again” or something. But when he suggested they go to his house because the area is better for photos, Steve was all for it. Now, it was only a matter of time until they’d see each other again.

The rest of the day went by painfully slow. Jonathan caught himself thinking about Steve a few times in class. During English, he jumped in his desk out of shock and hit his legs on the bars of the desk, which of course earned him a few stares and a lot of pain.

He was currently sitting in last period, Physics. He never really paid attention in that class to begin with, but today he gave his undivided attention to the wall while he thought about just  _Steve_.  It was a bit weird to see him be so nice to Jonathan, and he wanted to know why. He made the decision to ask Steve about it on the way to his house later.

Jonathan was pulled of his daydream by the loud bell that signified the end of the day. Out of nowhere, Jonathan felt his stomach drop.

_‘Oh god, I have see Steve now... and talk to him?? How the hell am i going to do that??’_

He eventually shoved his notebooks into his backpack, and made his way to the school’s parking lot. He surprisingly found Steve leaning against his car. He had his stupid black sunglasses on and his jacket was hanging over his shoulder. Jonathan exhaled, not realizing that he was holding his breath whilst walking up to Steve.

”Hey man, you ready?” Steve asked, leaning off the car.

”Yea, um, how did you know this was my car? And where’s yours?” Jonathan asked in return.

”Well, this town isn’t that big you know. I’ve seen you around. And I hitched a ride from Nancy this morning so my car is back at home.” Steve replied as he pushed his sunglasses up.

Jonathan noticed that the sunglasses forced Steve’s hair back a bit. Bringing the one strand that always dangled down onto his forehead back up with the rest of his hair, Jonathan like it better that way. Not that Steve would care what Jonathan thought about his hair.

”Oh, o-ok, well let’s go then.” Jonathan smiled, not on purpose, and it surprised him that Steve made him smile so easily.

The two climbed into Jonathan’s car, and Steve made himself quite comfortable. He threw his sunglasses onto the dash board and turned to look at Jonathan as he started the car. Once the engine kicked on, the radio began blaring The Clash’s infamous “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” right from the beginning.

“Fuck! S-Sorry, I must have had the radio loud this m-morning.” Jonathan stumbled as he reached for the volume knob on the radio.

”Nah dude, keep it on, it’s a good song!” Steve laughed as he grabbed Jonathan’s wrist. 

The two looked at his wrist and sheepishly retracted their arms.

-

To Jonathan’s surprise, Steve knew almost all of the words to most of The Clash’s songs. He sang loudly for the entire ride there  just to make sure Jonathan was smiling the whole time.

They arrived at his house right as ‘Janie Jones’ ended. Perfect timing. Jonathan turned off the car and looked over at Steve with a small smile. 

“If you told me you were a fan of The Clash, we would’ve been friends a looong time ago!” He laughed.

Steve returned s smile and said, “Same here dude! I knew you listened to different stuff but if I knew it was THIS kind of different stuff, we could’ve been friends for months now!”

The two continued to talk about the band as they entered Jonathan’s house, not acknowledging Will who was sitting on the couch working on homework.

”Hey, can you keep it down! I have important work to do!” Will said, sounding annoyed.

”Oh sorry buddy, where’s mom?” Jonathan asked as he glanced around the house.

”Out back, apparently she’s into gardening now. Don’t ask me why.” Will said as he looked back down at the number of papers and books on the table. “Also why’s he here?”

Jonathan assumed he meant Steve and responded with a simple “For school” before leading Steve into his room. “Don’t mind the mess, I would’ve cleaned up if i knew you were coming before hand.”

Steve couldn’t help how Jonathan  sounded almost embarrassed by it, and he laughed a little. “It’s fine man, mine is much worse.” He replied.

”I’m sure” Jonathan laughed. “So, before we decide to go out into the forest and waste film, I’ll teach you the basics of my camera and photo taking.”

”Is it really that difficult?” Steve asked.

”Well, like I said before, my camera is a bit fussy so there are some things you gotta watch out for. Plus, it’s nice to now some tricks for taking good pictures.” Jonathan answered as he grabbed his camera and searched for some spare film. 

There was a silence between the two. Jonathan was still rummaging through his camera equipment, and Steve sat quietly on his bed and admired the amount of posters hung on the walls. The silence wasn’t necessarily awkward, it just felt like there was something that needed to be said but neither of them wanted to be the one to start the conversation. Until...

“Hey Jonathan, I uh-“

Jonathan turned around, holding the new found film in his hand, and stared at Steve. 

“I feel like I owe you some sort of explanation for this. For being so nice to you all of sudden and acting like we’re friend.” Steve started. Jonathan blinked, shifting his weight to his right leg. Was Steve faking this?

“I’m sorry, for everything I’ve ever said or done to hurt you. Physically and mentally. I was a really shitty person back then and I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that. I was surrounded by so many awful people that I didn’t even give myself a chance to see how much of a cool guy you are.” Steve sort of blurted it all out in one breath, he seemed... nervous.

Jonathan set down the film on his desk and walked over to where Steve was and sat on the bed next to him. “To be honest, I was wondering why you were suddenly so nice to me. I’m glad it’s because you’ve changed and not because you were planning on punching me in the end.”

The two of them laughed. They felt free, free of judgmental people and awkward tension between each other. When their laughter died down, they met each other’s gaze. Steve smiled at Jonathan, which earned him a smile in return.

“You have an amazing smile. The photography club would be a bunch of fools to not choose your picture as the winner.” Steve was so sweet it made Jonathan’s teeth ache.

“Um, thank you, Steve.” He spoke so softly it was almost a whisper. “Now, we’re losing daylight so let’s get going.” 

“Right! Work that camera for me Jonny!”

Jonathan smiled to himself at the nickname as he walked back over to his desk to get his camera and film. 

“So, this is a Pentax K1000, though i’m sure you don’t care about all the technical stuff-“

“What? Dude, this is your passion. If you want to talk about, I’m here to listen.” Steve reassured him. Jonathan exhaled in relief and continued to show what each and every single button on the thing did.

They ended up taking a few test photos. Jonathan snapped a few of what was left of the sunset, making sure to show Steve some tricks with getting the lighting right. Then, he passed the camera over to Steve and let him take a few of the sky, and a test photo of Jonathan.

“How do I know if I did good?” Steve asked as he handed the camera back to its owner.

“That’s the joy of it. Tomorrow, if you show up early enough, we can go to the dark room and develop them.” Jonathan offered.

“Give me a time and a place, I’ll be there!” Steve realized he sounded a bit too excited about the whole thing, but at this point he didn’t really care. He was genuinely enjoying the time we was spending with Jonathan, and with that thought, he was reminded that he should probably go home soon. 

“It’s getting a bit late, I can drive you home if you’d like?” Jonathan said as if he had read Steve’s mind.

“Oh, right, yea if you don’t mind. I’d rather not walk around this town at night alone.” He laughed.

-

The ride to Steve’s house was nice. The talked loudly over the sound of one of Jonathan’s tapes. Currently, they were talking about whether sunrises or sunsets were better over ‘Pretty in Pink’ by The Psychedelic Furs. Jonathan was on the sunrise side of the argument, and Steve in favor of sunsets.

They hadn’t even realized that they had ended up at Steve’s house like 5 minutes ago, their debates over good music were too immersive. Steve has thought to himself that this night had felt better than any of nights he had spent with a girl. He quickly got rid of that thought, not wanting to think too hard about it.

“Well, looks like we’re here.” Jonathan says awkwardly.

“We’ve  been here. ”  Steve laughs, and Jonathan immediately joins him.

Steve bends down to grab his bag off the floor of the car, he looks at Jonathan a bit more before leaving. He just wishes he could stay here and stare at Jonathan all night.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning at 7:30, we can get to school early and go to the dark room to develop the photos, alright?” Jonathan asked, snapping Steve out of his gaze.

“Yea, sounds like a date.” Steve immediately regretted saying that, well, that was until he saw Jonathan smile sweetly and laugh a little at it. Then he wishes he could say it a thousand times more.

“Goodnight, Steve.”

“Goodnight, Jonathan.”


	3. A Date?

The next day at school was... unusual. Jonathan surprisingly woke up early again, due to the fact that he fell asleep as soon as he got back home from dropping Steve off at his house.

All day it seems like his attention has been pulled towards Steve. Jonathan wondered if he’s always passed Steve so many times in the halls before and never noticed. It felt like he’s seen him more times today than he ever has in his life.

Finally, the end of the day came, but that didn’t mean Jonathan could escape from Steve. He was talked into hanging out at his house with Steve after school to talk about the competition more in depth, and Jonathan was just now starting to regret saying yes.

He walked out of the school with his head hung low, trying not to be noticed as he searched the parking lot for Steve.

“Byers.”

Well, that didn’t last long.

Jonathan turned around to see Tommy, Carol, and a few others he didn’trecognize walking up to him. He groaned and attempted to turn around to continue walking. 

Tommy reached out and grabbed Jonathan by the collar of his jacket and yanked him backwards. “Listen here fag, if you think you can steal Steve away from us you got another thing coming-“ 

“Hey asshole!”

Tommy‘s gaze snapped up at Steve, who was standing in front of them with his hands low on his hips. Jonathan slowly looked up and gave him a weak smile.

“If you really think I was ‘stolen’ from you guys, well, YOU got another thing coming. I chose to leave you douchebags, and so far i’m thinkin it was the right choice!” Steve said as he walked over to Tommy.

“Now, you better start leaving him alone or your gonna get it.” 

Steve grabbed Tommy’s wrist and squeezed, forcing him to release his grip. Jonathan stumbled as he was let go and quickly moved away from Tommy, nodding to Steve as he went to stand behind him.

“Fuck you Harrington, I thought you were better than this.” Tommy spat before wrapping his arm around Carol and storming off with the rest of his pathetic group.

Steve sighed and turned to Jonathan, who was standing cowardly behind him.

“Are you ok? They didn’t hurt you did they?” He asked as his eyes scanned Jonathan’s body.

Jonathan felt a jolt of what he could only describe as electricity go through up his spine as he felt Steve’s eyes run over his body.

“Y-yea I’m fine.” Jonathan muttered.

Steve shot him a relieved smile before offering to drive to the Byers household. Jonathan eventually agreed to let him drive as they made their way to his car.

-

The house was empty when they entered. Jonathan remembered that Will was spending the night at Mike’s house and that his mom was working late tonight.

“Hey I’m really sorry about Tommy. I heard what he said to you and I want you to know that he doesn’t mean it and-“

“Steve, It’s true.”

_‘Fuck! Shut up Jonathan!’_

Steve paused and looked at Jonathan with a confused look on his face, his mouth still hanging open from being cut off.

“Uh, what’s true?”

Steve could tell that Jonathan was holding back his words, he looked like he was in pain at just the thought of whatever he was going to say.

“I- um...I am a fag.” 

Steve swore he saw Jonathan’s heart break in two as he spoke the harsh slur. He wanted to grab him and hold him close and tell him it’s ok. But he figured that’d be too much and instead he chose to rest his hand on the other’s shoulder and say “Hey Jonathan, that’s ok! There’s nothing wrong with that, I promise you.”

Jonathan looked up at Steve and oh god, he was crying. Steve has never really dealt with people crying before, especially not in a situation like this.

“Jonathan.”

Then, he realized that grabbing Jonathan and holding him close  was a good idea. So he proceeded to do so. He let the hand that was resting on Jonathan’s shoulder slide down to his lower back and pulled him closer.

Jonathan rested his forehead on his shoulder, and Steve felt him cry against it.

“Jonathan I know it hurts, trust me, but they’re just saying that because they don’t understand. They don’t understand how amazing or unique you are, or how pretty your smile is. They don’t get it Jonny, but I do. Don’t let them get to you, I’m here for you ok?”

He felt Jonathan calm down and eventually he leaned back to look into his swollen red eyes. The sight made Steve want to cry, but he forced himself to keep it together.

“Y-you think... my smile is pretty?” Jonathan asked as he wiped his tears away from his cheeks.

“W-well yea.” Steve said awkwardly.

Jonathan grinned, his dimples sprouting from his cheeks. And that was why, that was why Steve thought his smile was the prettiest smile he has ever seen.

“We should really, um, get to working on the pictures.” Jonathan suggested.

“Oh, right.” Steve reluctantly let go of Jonathan, feeling indifferent to the rush of cold air that replaced Jonathan’s warmth.

-

“So, because the theme is ‘in your element’ I need to think of ideas for photos that capture some part of my personality or whatever.” Jonathan explained as he searched through the fridge for 2 Coke’s.

Steve sat comfortably at the dining room table, analyzing some of Jonathan’s favorite pictures that he picked out from the hundreds in his room. Majority of them were of the lake at the quarry, some were of either sunsets or sunrises, Steve couldn’t really tell because they were in black and white.

“Well, you seem to like being at the quarry, or the forest, and you also seem to be pretty passionate about music.” Steve started, “so, what if we take one of you down at the quarry sitting on your car or something with a radio next to you.” He suggested.

Jonathan closed the fridge and turned towards Steve with two cans, passing one to Steve as he sat down across from him.

“You know, I actually like that idea. How did that little brain of yours come up with that?” Jonathan joked.

“Hey! I can be creative!” Steve defended.

The two laughed as they continued to talk about Jonathan’s photography and drink soda. They were very relaxed around each other, especially after what happened earlier. After Jonathan calmed down, he felt oddly comfortable with having Steve know he was gay. The only people who knew were his mom, Will, and Nancy...sort of. Speaking of Nancy...

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened with you and Nance? I really thought you two had a thing going on.” Steve asked as he took another swig of Coke.

Jonathan sighed, “Well, before I started ‘dating’ Nancy, I always had a feeling that I didn’t like girls, but when we became friends I thought I was wrong. Then we started dating and getting...closer... and I got uncomfortable. I dragged it out cause I just thought it was becuase I’ve never been intimate with anyone like that before. But after  trying to have ,  you know-“

“Sex?” Steve filled in the gap.

“Y-yea, after that, I knew girls weren’t my thing. I broke it off by telling her that I didn’t think a relationship like that was right for me. So she doesn’t technically know but, she has an idea.” Jonathan finished and chugged the rest of his soda.

“Ah, right.” Steve mumbled. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t think it’s weird or anything. I totally accept you man.”

Jonathan smiled to himself as he played with his fingernails. “Thank you, Steve. I honestly never thought you’d be one to accept me that way, let alone be someone I’d come out to.” He laughed.

Steve smiled contently, both to himself and to Jonathan.

“How’s about we head to the quarry tomorrow? It’s Saturday, so we can go at sunrise. I’ll bring my dad’s boom box and we can try to get some photos.” Steve suggested.

“Yea, sounds like a great idea. Would you be up for picking me up that early though? Sunrise is usually around 5 am, you know?”

“Yea man, anything for you.”

Steve didn’t really think about what he said, but when he looked up to see Jonathan with a blush so dark it resembled his Coke can, Steve quickly apologized for his word choice.

“It’s ok.” Jonathan laughed it off, luckily.

Steve exhaled in relief and sat back. He watched Jonathan laugh, it was hypnotizing. His dimples were deep, his nose crinkled a bit, and his shoulders were drawn together.

“Anyways, it’s getting late. It’s almost 10 already, I should drive you home.” Jonathan suggested.

“Hey, what if I spend the night? Then we won’t have to wake up so early and drive all over town. Th-That is...if you’re ok with that?” Steve stuttered.

“I... sure but, wouldn’t we still have to go to your house for the boom box?” Jonathan pointed out.

“Ooooh right... well we can still do that but we won’t have to leave as early.” Steve tried to reason.

“Yea I guess we can do that.” Jonathan shrugged. “Will your parents be ok with all this?”

“They’re away on a business trip for my dad, which is partly why I wanted to come to your house, feels more homey.” Steve replied as he sat back in his chair.

“Alright then, I’ll leave a note for mom so she doesn’t freak out when she comes home to someone sleeping on her couch.” Jonathan laughed.

“Dude... the couch? Really?” Steve pouted, only half joking.

“Well what else do you suggest? My bed is like 2 feet wide, there’s no way we could both fit on it.” He replied, only partly joking.

Steve glared at him as if he knew Jonathan was underestimating his bed size.

“Ok fine it’s more than 2 feet wide, maybe 4 at best.” The two laughed at Jonathan’s response.

They eventually agreed on letting Steve sleep on the floor, much to Jonathan’s confusion. Why sleep on the floor when there’s a perfectly good couch just a room away? Oh well, Jonathan sort of liked the fact that Steve wanted to stay in his room. They ended up sitting on opposite ends of Jonathan’s bed before deciding to sleep. Jonathan leaned on his pillow that was propped up against his wall, and Steve laid on his side at the foot of the bed. In between them there was a mix of pictures and bowls half full of snacks. They talked about nothing in particular, moving from topics like music to hobbies to embarrassing stories from middle school which eventually led into a short game of truth or dare.

“So, Jonathan, truth or dare?” Steve asked as he tossed a pretzel into his mouth.

“Uh... truth.” Jonathan answered as he sat up.

“What was your first date?” Steve asked as if he’d been holding it in for a few turns now.

“Ah man... I think my first real one was with some girl in 6th grade. My mom drove us to a local ice cream place and let us sit by ourselves which was like, a huge deal.”

Steve couldn’t help but laugh, which earned him a light punch to the arm from Jonathan.

“I remember I was trying to flirt with her and I ended up making her mad because I said something about how her hair looked weird. At the time I didn’t really know that people took ‘weird’ as a bad thing.” Jonathan shrugged.

“Weird is good man, anyone who tells you otherwise is living a boring life.” Steve said. “Your turn.”

“Right, truth or dare.” He asked.

“Fuck it, dare.” Steve answered, sitting up to face Jonathan properly.

“I dare you to take me out tomorrow night.”

Steve’s eyes went wide, which made Jonathan freak out a little.

“I mean like-“

“No, no, I’ll take you out. Where do you wanna go? I can drive you to some fancy place for dinner in the next town over, go see a movie then go to the quarry and look out at Hawkins while talking about the existence of aliens.” Steve talked with his hands, spreading his hands across a non-existent sky dramatically as he mentioned aliens.

Jonathan relaxed a little. “Yea man, then drive home and sneak in super late and stay up all night.” He added with a laugh.

“Sounds like a-“

“Date?” Jonathan finished, and held out his hand as if he were making a deal.

Steve looked down at his hand and smiled. “A date.” He confirmed, and shook Jonathan’s hand. Steve hadn’t expected his hands to be so...soft. They looked rough and calloused, but when Steve locked hands with the other boy, he quickly realized how far from the truth that was.

“We should get to bed, it’s way past midnight and we have to get up early.” Jonathan spoke in that soft voice that Steve has recently become attracted to.

“Oh shit, yea.” Steve practically jumped off of Jonathan’s bed and settled down on the makeshift bed on the floor. “Goodnight Jonny.” Steve said teasingly.

“Quite calling me that! And goodnight Harrington.” Jonathan said as he turned off his bedside lamp. Steve could practically hear the smirk on Jonathan’s lips.


	4. At Sunrise

Jonathan couldn’t sleep that night. His brain was constantly reminding him that _Steve Harrington_ was sleeping in his room, never letting him relax long enough to fall asleep for good. He listened closely to the sounds Steve made throughout the night as he drifted in and out of sleep. His slow breathing, blankets moving as he adjusted himself in his sleep, and the way his breath hitched every once in a while, it was mesmerizing to Jonathan.

Eventually he heard his alarm clock go off, indicating that it was now 4 am. He quickly flipped over and smacked the clock quiet. He turned back to face Steve to see him looking right back at him.

“Do you always watch other people sleep?” Steve spoke.

His voice was soft and warm, a little rough but it complimented the natural soothing tone very well.

“Uh- oh, I’m s-sorry.” Jonathan could feel his palms start to get clammy. Damnit, now Steve was going to think he was even more of a creep than he thought he was before. Instead, he just heard Steve laugh quietly.

“We should get up, sunrise will be here before we know it.” Steve suggested as he forced himself to sit up.

“R-right, if you um... need to shower or something, the bathroom is at the end of the hall.”

“Nah, I’ll shower when we get back. If I do it now we might miss our chance to get some good pictures.” Steve told him as he stood up.

The blankets that were once covering Steve were slipping down his body as he stood. Jonathan tried to tear his eyes away, but if he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t really trying that hard. Apparently Steve had taken his shirt off sometime during the night, because now his chest was exposed.

Jonathan felt the heat rush to his face, and maybe somewhere else but he tried not to think about it.

“Can I borrow a shirt? I’d put mine back on but it kinda...smells.” Steve admitted.

Jonathan forced himself to snap out of his gaze, “I’m not sure if any of my shirts will fit you honestly.” He said as he stood up from his bed.

He didn’t realize that he was only wearing his boxers and a loose t-shirt until he looked at Steve, who was staring at his body the same way he did yesterday... but something was different this time.

“Fuck, sorry! ”  Jonathan laughed awkwardly and scrambled around his room to find a pair of pants.

Steve chuckled, and Jonathan couldn’t tell if he was doing it at him or with him.

“You mind if I take a look in your closet for something to put on?” Steve asked as he pointed his thumb towards the closet.

“Um, no not at all, do whatever you want.” Jonathan said absentmindedly as he slipped on the jeans he wore yesterday and left the room. 

As he entered the hallway, he wondered if leaving Steve in his room alone was a good idea. The thought quickly disappeared when he ran into his mother as he entered the hallway.

“Oh, Jonathan! Be careful sweetheart!” His mother said as she held him by arms.

“S-sorry mom.” He quickly said as he brushed past her to get to the bathroom.

“So, Steve Harrington huh? When did you two start talking.” His mother said with a smirk.

Jonathan cringed and turned around to look at her. “Mom. It’s nothing more than an acquaintanceship. He’s helping me take pictures for the photography competition at school, that’s it.” He explained quickly before running into the bathroom.

-

When he exited the bathroom about 10 minutes later, he heard his mother talking. He started wondering why she was up so early, but the thought left his mind as soon as he saw that she was talking to Steve.

“Oh! Jonathan sweetheart you didn’t tell me you and Steve were so close!“

“Mom, we’re-“ Jonathan went to say, but he glanced over at Steve. He quickly noticed that Steve was wearing his  The Clash ‘Know Your Rights’  tour shirt. We had gotten it when he went to see them live in concert a few years ago, but it was slightly too big so he didn’t wear it that often. Steve smiled back it him, and he decided that he didn’t want to say anything that would hurt his feelings.

“Y-yea I mean, we’re getting there.” He opted for.

His mother smiled at him, it was a smile he’d never seen before. She looked happy, and hopeful.

“Well we better get going, we still have to stop by my place before heading out to the quarry.” Steve finally spoke.

“Oh, shit, we gotta go.” Jonathan panicked as he glanced at the clock on the wall.

His mother yelled at him for the language, but he just quickly apologized and dragged Steve out the door. They both got into Jonathan’s car and made their way to Steve’s house. The drive was so short with the help of music to occupy the two boy’s minds. A song or two by The Kinks played, and while Steve admitted to never hearing either of the songs before, it didn’t stop him from dancing and attempting to sing to them.

They reached Steve’s house in no time, and left just as quickly as they arrived. Steve threw the huge boom box into the back seat, to which Jonathan harped on him about because apparently he was being “careless” with it, but Steve brushed it off.

Once they ended up the quarry, the sun was peeking slightly above the horizon. Just in time.

“Alright, sit on the hood. I’ll put the boom box on the ground right....here-“ Steve said as he set down the box a foot or two away from the front of the car. “-and you can just sit up there and look pretty.” Steve smiled as he grabbed Jonathan’s camera from the front seat.

“Uh, just so you know, these don’t have to be perfect. I highly doubt they’ll come out any good on your first try, so don’t worry about the film or anythi-“

“Jonathan shut it, I’ll buy you more, now pose like your life depends on it cause the sky looks gorgeous right now!” Steve called it to him as he backed up a few feet and crouched down.

Jonathan, not really knowing what to do with himself, pulled one leg up and rested an arm against his knee as he stared out at the sky. The sunrise really did look gorgeous right now. There was a bright orange-ish yellow glow coming from the horizon, which faded into a mixture of soft bull pinks and dark blues. It was one of the prettiest sunrises Jonathan had ever seen. He lost himself in the moment, admiring the flow of colors across the sky that he didn’t realize Steve staring at him.

Steve, who was sat on the ground about 10 feet away from where Jonathan sat, stared at the boy through the lenses of the camera. “Gorgeous...” he whispered to himself as he snapped another photo.

Jonathan turned back to Steve as he heard the sound of the camera flash. “Did you get any?” he asked.

Steve stood back up and held the camera out to Jonathan as he walked over to him. “Yea I got a few, I apologize in advance if they don’t come out they way you want.”

Jonathan just gave him a weak smile and shook his head, “Don’t worry about it, we still have like 3 weeks to get the right ones plus you’re still learning!” he reassured Steve as he took the camera from him and stuffed it into the bag that sat next to him.

“So, what now?” Jonathan awkwardly asked as he turned to face Steve.

“Well, we can enjoy the rest of this sunrise, I mean we did wake up at 4 am for it.” Steve shrugged.

Jonathan agreed, and the walked over to the edge of the hill. The two sat down, fairly close Jonathan noticed. He couldn’t help but glance down at Steve’s hands as he used them to prop himself up on as he leaned back.

“I’ve never really seen a sunrise before, I’m not one to wake up early.” Steve said, breaking the silence.

Jonathan looked out at the sky and smiled. “Yea, they’re worth it though.”

He felt Steve’s eyes dance across his skin, and restrained himself from looking back at him. Because he forced himself to focus on the sunrise, he didn’t notice Steve pulling his camera back out and snapping a quick photo.

“Hey!” Jonathan helped turning his head quickly.

“Haha sorry, you just looked...” Steve trailer off.

The two looked at each other, like,  _really_ looked at each other, as if it were the first time. Jonathan noticed how Steve’s eyes brightened as the rising sun reflected in them, and Steve focused on the faint freckles that were dusted across Jonathan’s nose. They sat there like that for logger than they had realized, only looking away from each other when they heard a loud snap come from the woods.

“Probably just an animal.” Steve reassured.

“R-right.” Jonathan mumbled as he looked down at his lap.

“Hey, do you wanna get breakfast? I heard the diner has amazing waffles!” Steve said with a smile so bright Jonathan thought he could beat the sun. He nodded and watched Steve stand up.

“Need some help?” Steve asked as he offered a hand to Jonathan.

He hesitated, but eventual grabbed his hand and pulled himself up. Steve turned out to be way stronger than he has thought, and Jonathan turned out to be way lighter than Steve thought. Jonathan stumbled as he came to his feet and looked into Steve’s eyes as he was just inches away from his face. They stared at each other for longer than they would’ve admitted to, but a faint noise from the city below snapped them out of their gaze.

“Sh-shit I’m sorry.” Jonathan stuttered nervously as he backed away.

“It’s...It’s ok.” Steve looked, disappointed.

Jonathan rubbed his tired eyes and turned to face the car. “We should... get going. I’m starving.”

“Yea...yea. Lets go.” Steve brightened up.

-

The ride to the diner was suffocating. Jonathan let Steve drive, seeing as he knew a shortcut, so he was forced to stare out the window in silence. Steve didn’t say much either, only sighing or clearing his throat every once in a while. Jonathan looked at him from the corner of his eye, and he could tell he wanted to say something.

“I’m really sorry for making you feel uncomfortable back there. You were... lighter than I was expecting. ”  Steve finally spoke.

Jonathan slowly turned his head to Steve. “It’s fine. It’s my fault anyways, it wouldn’t have been so awkward if I hadn’t made it that way. My presence alone makes the air feel weird.” 

Steve couldn’t help but notice the depressed tone in Jonathan’s voice, his heart sunk as he spoke.

“No, Jonathan, you don’t make things awkward. I mean, I’ve been around you for like 2 days straight and it hasn’t been weird at all. In fact, being with you these past few days has made me the most relaxed I’ve ever been. Being around you, I know I don’t have to act cool or tough. I know I don’t have to pretend I like certain things and I don’t feel like I need to impress you 24/7! I haven’t had good company in a loooong time, and I’m glad your the one to change that.”

Jonathan continued to look at Steve, his heartbeat slowed down and he relaxed in the rather uncomfortable leather seat.

“No one has ever said anything that nice to me before. Thank you, Steve.” He inhaled, and exhaled before speaking again. “I honestly never thought we’d be hanging out this way. Before all this, I came to terms with being alone for the rest of my life, well besides having my mom and Will. But now that we are, I don’t think I could ever go back to living that way. So...yea...it’s nice being around you too, Harrington.” Jonathan gave Steve a small smile as he looked over to see the brunet grinning right back at him.

“Keep your eyes on the road, I like hanging out with you but I’d rather not die by your side right now.” Jonathan joked.

“Oh, _right now_ you say? So maybe in 60 years when we’re old and disabled, then you’ll be okay with dying next to me?” Steve joked back.

“Shut it Steve, or your dying by yourself and that’s a promise.” Jonathan said with no real bite to his words.

“Yea yea, one day you’ll be lookin over atme with that same grin as we flatline on our hospital beds.”

They laughed, genuine and loud. Jonathan felt something light up inside of him, and he was shocked that Steve was the one to do it to him.


	5. Not As Hard

The diner was pretty empty to no one’s surprise, yet Jonathan and Steve seated themselves in the farthest corner away from the other few people in the run-down restaurant.

“So, Jonny, when are we gonna develop those photos?” Steve chirped as he sat back in the booth.

Jonathan couldn’t help but give the smallest of smiles at the sound of his new nickname. “Monday, we can stay after school and go to the dark room.”

Steve nodded, seemingly satisfied. He watched as Jonathan’s eyes inspected the menu. He couldn’t care less if they were public, there weren’t many people around anyways.

“So what are you getting?” Jonathan said, feeling the need to break the silence.

“Nothing.” Steve shrugged.

“What? You’re not hungry? You have to eat something!” Steve laughed at Jonathan’s concerned voice.

“I never eat this early, though I might steal some stuff from your plate.” Steve tilted his head and winked.

Jonathan could feel himself go pale and blush madly at the same time. Steve just chuckled in response. That bastard.

-

After an hour’s worth of Jonathan complaining about Steve “leaching off of his plate of food” and retorts of “you ordered too much anyway, I’m just helping”, the boys left the diner and got back into Jonathan’s car.

“That was... really nice. Thanks.” Jonathan said shyly as he started the car.

“Yea, thanks for letting me take you out.” Steve purposely chose to say it that way, a smirk making it’s way to his face as he said it. He waited for a flustered response from the younger boy next to him, but when he didn’t receive one, he looked over.

“Um, Steve? Can I ask you something?” Jonathan had his head resting on the steering wheel.

“Yea of course.” Steve sounded more concerned than he intended to.

“I understand, well now at least, why you’re being so nice to me and I’m glad you are but...I just...” Jonathan sat up and his eyes were twitching, looking for the right words to say.

“Steve are you...do you...like boys?”

Jonathan slowly turned his head to look at Steve, and immediately regretted it. Steve looked shocked, no, taken aback. He looked as though someone had called him out on some huge secret he thought he could get away with.

“I-“

“You don’t have to answer that, forget I asked.” Jonathan panicked.

“No! No... You told me, so I think it’s fair I do the same, but I’d prefer to have that talk somewhere that isn’t the parking lot of a shitty diner.” Steve forced a laugh.

Jonathan eased up a little, and nodded in agreement. He put the car in drive and made his way back home.

-

The drive was excruciatingly awkward and silent. Jonathan turned on the radio and put in one of his tapes to get rid of the lack of noise. Eventually they reached Jonathan’s house, and entered yet another capsule of silence. No one was home, Will was still at Mike’s house and his mother was at work. Jonathan was sort of grateful for that. He led Steve back to his room and set down his camera on his bedside table as he sat.

“So, where to start?” Steve strained to say.

“Wherever you’re comfortable.” Jonathan assured, he knew it wasn’t easy to come out. Although he’s always been pretty accepting of himself, Steve wasn’t the same. Jonathan had some prior knowledge about Steve’s stuck-up family and, obviously, about the people he used to associate with.

“I feel like it’s always been in the back of my mind ever since I started school. It was like whenever I talked to boys there’s was something in me saying that it was right, and when I got to middle school where I had some pretty bad friends who were getting girlfriends, that voice got stronger. I tried so hard to hide it. I knew my parents would throw me out of my house at just the indication that I’m...gay-“

Jonathan took note on his hesitation.

“-so I didn’t say anything, to anyone. Then before I knew it high school came along and wrecked me completely. So many people were, and still are, vocal about how much they hated people like me. So, I kept quiet. I would date girls and even have sex with them in attempt to convince myself that it was a mistake, but it made me feel horrible. Then I dated Nancy. I thought I was really in love with her. Now that it’s over, I realized that I only thought of it that way because she was the first person to be so nice and accepting towards me. I thought I was in love, but I was just so deprived of genuine trust and care that I mistook it for romantic feelings.”

Steve was on the verge of ears. His voice got increasingly more shaky as he talked, and Jonathan felt his heart squeeze.

“Then when we broke up and agreed to stay friends, I met you... again. Not being around those shitty people I somehow got tangled up with made me realize how much I wanted to get to know you. I knew I wanted to from the moment I saw you, and I realized... it wasn’t a mistake. This part of me isn’t some lie, or a phase I needed to get through. I just...needed to find someone to show me that.” Steve reluctantly looked at Jonathan as he wiped away the tears gathering in his eyes.

“Steve-“

Jonathan practically had the wind knocked out him from the force of Steve lunging towards him and latching onto his body. It took Jonathan a second or two to reciprocate the affection, eventually wrapping his arms around Steve’s torso.

“I know, trust me, it’s hard. But it’s so much better to know that there’s someone there that understands you and cares about how you feel. I just can’t believe that it’s me.” Jonathan’s voice was as unsteady as his emotions. “It’s all ok now. We got each other man, I’m here!”

Steve loosened his grip on Jonathan and sat back. When they leaned away from each other, Jonathan noticed how red Steve’s eyes and nose were. We was crying.

“Hey, you just wanna... hang out and listen to some music? I got the perfect tape for right now.” Jonathan said with smile, hoping Steve would smile back.

Luckily Steve made an attempt as he nodded and adjusted himself on Jonathan’s bed.

Jonathan stood up and walked over to his stereo setup. He rummaged through the box of cassette tapes that were on the floor and eventually picked out in particular.

“I’m not sure if there’s anything you’d like to do, so you can just relax while I get some homework done. I apologize for not being a great host, I never have people over.” Jonathan explained as he put the cassette into its corresponding player.

Steve laid down on his back as he listened to the music coming out of the electronic. The beginning notes of Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure loudly filling the room.

Steve couldn’t help but laugh a little, no wonder Jonathan said it was the ‘perfect tape’.

“I made this myself, for when I’m feeling like trash and need some songs to reassure me that I’m not the only one.” Jonathan explained as he turned back to Steve, a little surprised to see him get so comfortable on his bed.

“It’s perfect.” Steve blandly stated, it seemed he was drifting off to sleep.

A grin subconsciously made its way to Jonathan’s face. He walked over to the doorway where his backpack was discarded and grabbed it, making his way back over to his desk and pulling out his homework. Around the 3rd song in, which was What Difference Does It Make by The Smiths, Jonathan turned around to see that Steve was fast asleep.

He looked at him, with something like admiration in his eyes.

Content. Peaceful.


	6. The Dark Room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some action!! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it❤️

Jonathan had given Steve a ride home that afternoon, arriving back at his own house right before his mom got home from work. As he watched his mother pull into the driveway, he wondered if she had picked up Will or if she was expecting him to get his brother. As per usual when he thinks about small things like this, he started to panic. He never wanted to worry his mother or make her do something that she relied on Jonathan for, but after watching her get out of the car, he saw that Will got out right after her. He let out a breath he didn’t realized he was holding and walked into the kitchen to grab a water.

“Hi sweetheart! How was your day today?” Joyce spoke and she walked inside holding a few grocery bags, Will following close behind.

“It was good, got most of my homework done, I’m still working on it.” Jonathan responded.

“Will, honey, can you put these away for me?” She asked sweetly. Will nodded with a smile and took the bags into the kitchen. He said a quick “Hi” to his brother before getting to work on the groceries.

Jonathan looked back at his mother, she waved her hand in a way that told him  _come here_ ,  so he followed her outside.

“How was it? With Steve, I mean.” She asked. Jonathan just looked at her. What was she expecting him to say?

“W-well it went fine? After getting some pictures at the quarry we went to breakfast at the diner. Then we came back here and hung out for a little while before I dropped him back off at his house.” Jonathan told it as it was, nothing special happened. Well, sure, Steve Harrington  _did_ come out to him, but he figured his mother wasn’t all that interested in Steve’s personal life nor did he think Steve would be ok with his mother knowing that kind of information.

“I just want you to know how happy I am for you, how happy I am that you’re happy. Steve seems like a good boy for you, I get the feeling you need him as much as he might need you.” Jonathan thought about his mother’s words. How did she know this kind of stuff?

“I can tell that he’s different from Nancy, and that’s a good thing. You need another boy around you who isn’t your 13 year old brother.” Joyce laughed, making Jonathan crack a smile.

“Thanks mom, Steve has changed a lot since the last time I spoke to him. He’s better, so much better.” Jonathan reassured her. He looked over at her to see tears forming in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” He knew they were just happy tears, but he didn’t really understand why she was getting emotional about it.

“Nothing, I’m just happy you met someone.” The sentence sounded condescending to Jonathan. He wanted to ask her what she meant by it, but when he opened his mouth to speak, she was already walking back inside.

“Come on, it’s about to rain.” Joyce said as she opened the door.

Jonathan turned to look at the sky to see that she was in fact right about the weather. The sky was a mixture of dark cool gray clouds and light blue streaks from the sunny sky behind them. He walked back inside and helped his mother and Will prepare dinner. He fell asleep easily that night, the sound of rain had always put him right to sleep.

-

Monday. September 10th, 1984. About 20 days left until his submissions were due.

Jonathan had woken up to a loud banging at his door. His eyelids felt like they were glued shut and his body was being pushed down onto his bed.

“Jonathan! Get up, it’s 7:30 already!” He barely heard Will yell from the other side of the door. After hearing that, he sprung out of bed and ran to his closet to look for some clothes. Then it hit him. Steve had never given him his shirt back, which meant...

Jonathan slowly turned around to look at the plain white shirt that was laying on the floor. “Shit.” He whispered. Steve had forgotten his own shirt. He quickly pulled on a black t-shirt and yanked on a pair of light wash jeans before walking over to the discarded shirt. He picked it up and put it in his bag, reminding himself to give it to Steve at school. 

He shoved the rest of his things into his bag and grabbed his camera before rushing out the door. He walked, more like ran, outside to see Will sitting in his car already. The smaller boy leaned over and honked the horn, which made Jonathan jump as he made his way over to the car. Will laughed for what felt like the whole ride to school, so Jonathan was more than happy to shove him out once they arrived.

“Hey, mom is picking you up, I gotta stay after school today.” Jonathan told Will before driving off to the infamous Hawkins High.

He got there pretty late, as expected, so he had no time to see Steve or Nancy. The day went by in a blur. The combination of waking up late and not having breakfast left him with barely any energy to focus on anything during the day. When the bell rang for lunch, he quickly walked to the cafeteria to grad some food before spending the rest of his time in the library doing homework. He made another mental note to apologize to Nancy for not showing up.

Before he knew it, the school day was coming to an end and he packed up his things to leave class. As he walked down the halls, he remembered that he promised Steve he’d meet him outside the dark room right after school. He turned on his heels and headed to the other end of the school. Eventually, he arrived in the hallway and was just feet away from the room. He expected Steve to be there already, yet he was still surprised and relieved to see him actually standing there. 

“Got your camera?” Steve asked.

“Yup, let’s head inside before the crowd gets any bigger.” Jonathan replied, signaling to the large group of teens squeezing together to get out of the school.

“You got a key or something?” Steve asked, again.

“Yea, the janitor gave me a spare because he got tired of having to come down here and open it for me almost every day.” Jonathan said with a smile on his lips.

The two boys quickly entered the room. To Steve’s surprise, the room wasn’t all that dark. In fact, the main overhead light was bright enough to blind someone if they looked directly at it.

“They keep the light on for me. All I gotta do is turn this off and turn that on.” Jonathan said as he walked over to the main light switch. He flicked off the bright white light and turned on the soft red one in its place.

“This is where the magic happens.” Jonathan said, he couldn’t help sound make it sound stale. He has been working in a darkroom for years now, so there was nothing for him to be really excited about, but Steve was throughly interested. He walked around and analyzed the room. There were a few tables in the middle of the room, each with a number of trays on them. There were shelves and desks up against the walls that were filled with supplies like trays, large bottles of chemicals, stacks of photo paper, photography equipment, and other things Steve didn’t recognize.

“This is actually really cool.” Steve said as he continued to look around.

“It’s a dream of mine to have my own dark room when I get a house for myself. Though like I said, just a dream.” Jonathan shrugged.

Steve turned to him. “Dude, this is your passion! I think you need to turn that dream into a goal, that way it’s achievable, and something like that totally is.” 

Jonathan was glad that Steve still had his backed turned to him, or else he would’ve teased him about the huge smile on his face.

“Let’s just, get started shall we?” Jonathan eventually said.

-

After explaining what photographic processing was, as well as the function of each piece of equipment, Jonathan decided to leave Steve in charge of solution-making. Steve learned that there were actually 3 different solutions used to develop pictures, and Jonathan had no problem explaining all 3. Jonathan also made it very clear that getting the ratio of water to each developing solution and the temperature of said solutions were a crucial part of the process. Steve didn’t want to let Jonathan down, so he took extra time and caution when creating the mixtures. Jonathan was busy selecting and enlarging the pictures from the small rolls of film. Every so often, Steve would look over at the shorter boy. He liked seeing Jonathan get so invested in the things he liked, it made him smile and his heart feel warm. Speaking of warm things, Steve turned his attention back to the liquid to check the temperatures.

“Hey, these chemicals are ready.” Steve called to Jonathan.

“Good, now pour each one into a different tray. I suggest putting the developing chemicals in the white tray, stop bath solution in the grey, and fixer in the black. That’s how I do it.” Jonathan explained effortlessly as he took the seemingly blank pieces of shiny paper out of the enlarger.

He carefully walked over to Steve, who was slowly pouring each liquid into its respective tray.

“Good, good. Now i’ll just set this in here-“ Jonathan started as he slowly submerged one of the several photos in the liquid. 

“Now we wait for a minute and then we gotta work fast. Normally I would go one by one, but since you’re here, we can do 3 at a time. When this one is done developing, I’ll put it in the next tray and you put one of the undeveloped photos into the first tray, and so on.” Jonathan seemed to be getting excited about the process. Steve assumed he never had anyone around to help him develop picture, so his excitement was understandable, and Steve was glad to be the one to help.

-

The rest of the processing went by fast, with the two working smoothly and quickly, they had ended up with 8 photos developed in just around 4 hours. It was a record time for Jonathan, usually he’d spend that amount of time developing only 3 photos, so needless to say he was overjoyed to get so much work done.

“It’s almost 8, that’s impressive. I could never develop so many in that time, it’s amazing what two people can do in a dark room for 5 hours.” Jonathan beamed at Steve.

“I’d say we make a good team, huh Byers?” Steve raised his hand, an invitation for a high-five.

Jonathan just stood there, smiling. Eventually his dimples appeared and before Steve knew it, Jonathan’s arms were wrapped tightly around his neck.

“Thank you. You’re the only person who’s ever willingly stayed in here this long to help me. Nancy always left around the third hour. I’m glad you stayed.”

Steve slid his arms around Jonathan’s incredibly small waist, and Steve thanked the gods for it. He felt Jonathan lean back, but he never let go.

“Steve.” Jonathan whispered.

“Jonathan?”

Steve couldn’t agree more on the phrase “great minds think alike” right in that moment, because the two seemingly made the decision to break the distance between them and attach their lips to one another at the same time. Steve’s senses were heightened, he could hear the small noises coming from Jonathan’s throat, smell the chemicals of the developing solutions, and feel the softness of Jonathan’s lips and hands all over his body regardless of the fact that they were only on his face.

Jonathan slid his hand up into Steve’s messy hair and rubbed the strands between his fingers while Steve walked him backwards. Eventually they hit the wall, luckily not the one where the pictures were still hanging up on. Jonathan made a small noise that transferred from his mouth to Steve’s, and Steve felt his knees get weaker by the second.

He felt like he was high and drunk at the same time, whether that be from the chemicals filling the air or Jonathan’s lips, he couldn’t care less. He pressed against Jonathan’s small body, making the shorter boy open his mouth with a sigh.

“Fuck.” Steve hissed as he latched his mouth onto Jonathan’s neck.

“Sh-shit! Steve- wait!” Jonathan yelped but was ignored as Steve bit down on the milky skin of his neck.

“F-fuck, Steve-!”

Steve felt Jonathan’s whole body shake. His spine, shoulders, knees, everything. He stopped and looked at Jonathan in confusion.

“Steve, fuck, I- I’m so sorry...” Jonathan pulled his hands out of Steve’s hair and covered his face with them.

Steve’s eyes trailed down to Jonathan’s body, eventually seeing the wet spot that was forming on his jeans.

“Did... did you?” Steve started to say.

“I’m so sorry, I tried to make you stop but you didn’t listen to me. God, shit! Please don’t tell anyone, please! I won’t talk to you ever again if that’s what you want just-“

“Hey.” Steve said calmingly as he pulled Jonathan’s hands away from his face.

“You haven’t gotten any action down there in a while, huh?” Steve smirked.

“S-Steve?” Jonathan’s voice sounding timid.

“It’s actually kinda cute Byers, didn’t know I had that effect on you.” Steve inches closer to Jonathan once again.

Jonathan sank down under Steve’s towering body. “Y-You don’t know what you’re talking about... I made this so awkward and weird-“

“Will you stop with that? Everyone slips up a bit here and there, I’m not perfect, I fuck up all the time. Jonathan, I can promise you that nothing is awkward or weird.” Steve dropped the smirk and instead gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s ok!”

Jonathan slowly straightened his back and stood at his normal height again, looking Steve in the eyes again.

“Did you...like it?” Jonathan asked, his voice shaky.

“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced something as amazing as that. Do I get to kiss you again?” Steve tilted his head.

“We need to leave soon, it’s getting la-“

Too late. Steve’s mouth was already moving against Jonathan’s. They easily got into a rhythm, Steve tilted his head from left to right and back again every so often, giving Jonathan a second to breathe.

“We...we need to...go...before someone- shit, Steve!” Jonathan whined as he felt Steve press his body even harder against his own.

“Will you...stop that...” Jonathan struggled.

“Why? You sound amazing when I do it.” Steve said nonchalantly as his lips grazed over his neck.

“Don’t.” Jonathan said firmly, for once in his life.

Steve made a growling noise against his neck and backed away, a wide smirk plastered on his face as he put a hand next to Jonathan’s head and leaned against it.

“Alright, let’s go. Come back to my place though. Please?” Steve couldn’t help but beg, there was no way he was letting Jonathan go back home alone tonight, not after kissing those amazing lips of his.

“Nng fine. But let me call my mom when we get there so she doesn’t freak out when I don’t come home.” Jonathan reasoned.

“Perfectly fine with me, as long as I get to keep you all night.” Steve’s flirting made Jonathan’s teeth ache and his stomach flip.

“Listen, just cause we kissed and you made me cream my pants doesn’t mean you can flirt with me like that.” Jonathan argued.

Steve just laughed at his remark. “Oh Jonathan Byers, I’m pretty sure it does.”


	7. Candid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this is long one huh? It took me forever to write this so I hope you enjoy reading it!❤️  
> If you catch any spelling or grammar problems while reading, please comment and tell me!

Jonathan couldn’t decide if he liked how flirty and touchy Steve got after their little  _incident_.

Steve had left the room not too long after finally convincing Jonathan to give him the keys to his car, and he noticed how Steve took advantage of every second that their hands touched as Jonathan gave him the keys. Steve’s fingers glided over top of his, and as he left, he winked back at him before closing the door.

Jonathan realized how stiff he was after the door shut and the room had fallen silent. He shook his head and made his way over to the developed pictures that were spread out on one of the tables. He picked them up one by one and slid them carefully into a folder to ensure they wouldn’t get ruined.

As he packed away the photos, he came across one he didn’t remember. Among all of the wide-shot silhouette photos that Jonathan had instructed Steve to take, there was a close-up shot of Jonathan’s side profile that he didn’t recognize.

Then it clicked. It was the candid photo Steve had taken when they were sitting next to each other. Jonathan instantly remembered how flustered he got and the way his shaky voice sounded as he complained about his picture being taken that way. Yet as he looked closer, he actually started to like it.

Steve was no expert, not that Jonathan had considered himself one either, but this shot in particular amazed him. Jonathan smiled as he looked at the bright grays that were illuminating his face.

He rushed to make a copy of it before quickly yet carefully shoving it into a separate folder, then locked up the room before making his way out to the parking lot to meet Steve.

-

As the two walked up to the Harrington household, Steve mentioned something about going in the pool. Jonathan hated doing anything water related, whether it was swimming in a pool or going to the beach, he tried to get out of doing it, yet something made him agree this time.

Steve led the way up to his room as he talked about how the pool was heated and some other stuff Jonathan wasn’t paying attention to. He was distracted by the expensive nature of Steve’s house; there were statues and pieces of artwork decorating the halls, a huge chandelier that glittered in the rising moonlight, and the general open yet lonely feeling of the house.

“My parents are almost never around, which is why I used to throw so many parties. Honestly, I couldn’t care less about having hundreds of people here nowadays. It’s nice to be alone sometimes.” Steve spoke melancholically.

“I couldn’t agree more.” Jonathan replied quietly.

He was eventually led into Steve’s room, which was nothing like what he had been expecting. To be honest, he didn’t know what he was expecting, but this wasn’t it.

The walls were painted a light grey and were decorating with posters for bands and movies, and there were clothes and magazines scattered on the carpet floor. A dark wooden desk was up against the wall opposite of the door that entered the room, and it seemed to be covered in papers and books. Jonathan noticed that there were a lot of doors in Steve’s room, which made him feel a little anxious.

“Sorry its a mess, I never expect to have people over these days.” Steve admitted as he pushed his hair away from his face.

“I’ll grab you a bathing suit if you feel like going in the pool now.” Steve said as he pointed to what Jonathan could only assume was his closet.

“Yea that’s fine.” Jonathan said awkwardly, he couldn’t help that he felt so weird being in Steve Harrington’s room.

Steve flashed a quick smile before going into his walk-in closet, Jonathan rolled his eyes as he watched Steve disappear into the small room.

“Black or red?” Steve called out.

“Uh...black?” Jonathan replied.

Steve reappeared holding 2 pairs of shorts, handing Jonathan the black pair and keeping the red ones for himself.

“The bathroom is right behind you, I’m gonna go change in the one down the hall. I’ll meet you out by the pool, ok?” Steve felt like he was talking to a child, but he was ok with it seeing as it made Jonathan feel more comfortable.

Jonathan just nodded in response before turning around and going into the bathroom which, to no surprise, was also huge. He began to slowly strip himself of his clothes and as he went to put on the shorts, he realized how weird he felt.

It had been years since he’s worn swim shorts, and the fact that he was going to be wearing Steve’s made him feel even weirder.

Jonathan hit his forehead with the palm of his hand as if to get rid of the thought before quickly pulling on the shorts, and eventually making his way down to the pool.

As he opened the sliding glass doors, he felt Steve’s eyes instantly latch onto his body. He looked over at the lounge chairs that Steve was standing by, and immediately blushed.

Steve’s eyes trailed over every inch of Jonathan’s body, not missing a single feature. He especially focused on Jonathan’s deep collarbones, his smooth chest, long legs, and most importantly, his waist.

Steve counted his blessings as his eyes met with Jonathan’s incredibly small waist. They barley fit into the swim shorts and Steve felt himself squirm over it.

“Are you...ready?” Jonathan stumbled nervously as he crossed his arms over his chest; he wasn’t used to being stared at and didn’t know what to do.

“Oh, right yea! Lets get in.” Steve perked up as he walked over to the steps and lowered himself into the shallow end of the pool, Jonathan following not long after.

Steve floated over to where Jonathan was standing awkwardly, laughing a little as he watched the other boy.

“Dude, it’s just water. Get in, it feels good.” Steve said as he crouched down into the water, letting it cover his whole body.

Jonathan could feel himself relax as he submerged himself into the warm water, internally he was freezing but his skin felt like it was burning.

Steve had gotten closer in the time it took Jonathan to fully get in the water. He looked into Steve’s eyes for a second before tearing his focus away and instead looking down at the water.

“So-“ Steve moved, lifting Jonathan’s face up by his chin, “-you wanna talk about it now?” Steve mostly asked the question to break the silence.

“I...can we just...kiss? For right now?” Jonathan hated how unsteady his voice was, but after feeling Steve press his warm lips against his, that was the least of his concerns.

Jonathan felt his body relax as Steve deepened their kiss. His legs started to float in the water and he pulled them up to wrap around Steve’s waist. Jonathan prided himself for mustering up the courage to do such a thing, but nothing compared to what Steve had in mind.

He had slid his hand from Jonathan’s chin to his neck and used his other hand to wrap around his small waist, pulling him in close enough to feel Jonathan’s skin against his own.

Steve felt him hum against his lips, and he thought he was in heaven. Jonathan had his hands in Steve’s hair, occasionally tugging on it lightly to get Steve to make a few noises.

“You’re such a good kisser.” Steve said quickly.

He felt Jonathan smile against his lips before feeling something new.

Jonathan opened his mouth and moved his tongue against Steve’s lips, begging to let him in. Steve didn’t do much to resist and immediately opened his mouth, loving the feeling of Jonathan’s tongue against his.

Steve’s hands were gliding through the water and over Jonathan’s back as Jonathan thread his fingers through Steve’s hair while he wrapped his legs around his torso.

Jonathan loved the feeling of Steve being all over him, but something made him jerk back and out of Steve’s hold.

“Is everything ok?” Steve asked as he floated closer to Jonathan.

Jonathan, who was backing away from the other, was silent for a few moments. He stopped moving in the water and let Steve get close again.

“I’m ready...to talk.” Jonathan said quietly as he lowered his head.

“Oh, ok. We can get out and shower, I’ll get some food and we can just relax. That ok?” Steve proposed as he led Jonathan out of the pool. The younger stayed silent, only nodding in response.

-

Steve let Jonathan shower in his bathroom as a way to make him feel more comfortable. After getting out of the shower himself, he went to the kitchen to grab some snacks. He could still here the water running from upstairs so he took his time collecting various foods and drinks that would last the two of them for the night.

Steve balanced way too many cups, bags, and bottles as he walked upstairs to his room. When he entered the room, he was quickly met with Jonathan’s backside.

Steve stood in the doorway as he stared. Jonathan had the towel wrapped low on his waist, and Steve almost drooled over the way his back muscles flexed as he moved his arms.

“I-“ Steve hadn’t meant to say anything, but his mouth seemingly had a mind of its own.

The sudden voice had obviously scared Jonathan, his back tensed when Steve spoke and he quickly turned around to face him.

“Oh sorry! I was just trying to find some clothes.” Jonathan stumbled.

“That’s ok! Sorry for intruding, um, I can lend you a pair of sweatpants if you’d like?” Steve offered as he dumped the snacks onto his bed.

“I would appreciate that.” Jonathan replied sheepishly. “Oh, that reminds me! You left your shirt at my house the other day, I meant to give it to you this morning but I was running a little late.” Jonathan explained as he walked over to his backpack that was laying on the floor next to Steve’s desk.

He opened it and rummaged through it’s contents before pulling out a white shirt and handing it to Steve.

“I would’ve washed it for you, but I didn’t notice you left it until this morning.” Jonathan apologized as Steve took the shirt from him.

Steve said a quick thanks and walked into his closet, throwing the shirt into a laundry basket and searching for the comfiest pair of sweatpants for Jonathan.

After finding a pair of soft navy blue ones, he left the small room and gave them to Jonathan.

As he went to go change, Steve relaxed on his bed, and it was just now hitting him what was happening. Steve was going to have to sit in his bed with Jonathan Byers, who would be wearing nothing but a pair of borrowed sweatpants, and talk about why they had made out...twice.

“Hey...” Jonathan called for Steve’s attention as he came out of the bathroom.

He looked over, which he quickly realized was a huge mistake.

Steve already knew he had a infatuation with Jonathan’s waist, and the fact that he was now staring at him half naked in only Steve’s baggy sweatpants was not helping him get over it.

Jonathan noticed Steve’s staring, but decided to not say anything as he walked over to the bed and sat down.

“So...the kiss.” Jonathan said quietly.

“Kisses, actually.” Steve corrected.

“Right, um, I’m sorry if I dragged you into something you don’t want. I totally get it if you want to call this whole thing of and go back to how it used to be between us.” Jonathan looked down at his hands the entire time he spoke.

“Who said I wanted that?” Steve asked as he moved closer to Jonathan.

“Jonathan, ever since we started hanging out, I’ve felt more like myself than I ever have. Every second I’m around you I know that everything is ok, I know that I can relax! I don’t want that to just suddenly end, because I don’t know who I’ll be if it does.”

Jonathan felt his chest squeeze and his eyes were threatening to let a few tears roll down his face, but he just took in a huge breath before speaking as calmly as he could.

“If I knew that you’d make me feel the way I do, I would’ve asked you to take my picture months ago...but I’m just scared. I’m scared of what will happen, what people will say. Steve, I’m scared I’ll fuck up my chance like I did with Nancy.” Jonathan felt the tears stream down his face when he mentioned Nancy. Their current relationship was on the rough side. They had drifted away from each other after getting so close so quickly last year, and Jonathan felt like he did something to screw it up. Trying to talk to Nancy didn’t make it any better. 

“Hey.” Steve said as he moved closer to Jonathan, placing a hand on his shoulder which in turn made him look up. “We can go slow, build our friendship a bit more before we start making out again. As much as I love kissing you, I understand how you feel and I want you to be happy.” Steve lifted his right hand up to Jonathan’s cheek and wiped away the tears that gathered on his skin.

“Thank you.” Was all Jonathan had managed to say before laying down next to Steve and falling asleep in seconds.


	8. Music In The Mornings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deeply apologize for taking so long to update! Recently school has started up so most of my time is taken up by that, but I wanted to update this story asap. Again, I apologize, this chapter was supposed to be much longer but what I had was...trash... so I just scrapped it and kept this beginning part! I hope you guys enjoy regardless❤️

Jonathan didn’t remember falling asleep, but he sure as hell remembered waking up. As he slowly gained consciousness, the sound of Joy Division’s ‘ _Love Will Tear Us Apart_ ’  went in and out his ears.

His eyes fluttered open and he examined his surroundings without moving. He was snuggled deeply into Steve’s bed, who was not actually in said bed. Jonathan blinked a few times before looking in the direction that the music was coming from.

Steve was hovering over a stereo, moving around cassettes and messing with the knobs of the system. The song faded out and Steve moved his focus from the tapes to the stereo itself, he turned the sound down a little as the next song started.

‘ _Age Of Consent_ ’ , by New Order.

Jonathan smiled as Bernard Sumner’s unique voice eventually filled the room. He was surprised that Steve liked the song, it seemed so...  _not_ Steve.

“ New Order, I love this band.” Jonathan spoke at a volume that was just a notch louder than the music.

Steve jumped a little as he quickly looked back at the younger boy in his bed.

“Yea, I just started listening to them. Actually, it‘s because I saw a poster in your room with them on it and my interest was peaked. Needless to say I like them a lot.” Steve smiled brightly as he walked over to the bed.

Jonathan just watched him with soft, tired eyes. It felt so comfortable here. In Steve’s house, his room, his bed. He wanted to jump up and pull Steve into bed with him and stay there all day. Well, that was until he realized that is was Tuesday.

“Shit! We have to be at school!” Jonathan shot up in panic.

Steve just chuckled as Jonathan went to get out of bed, earning himself a confused look from the other boy.

“Don’t worry about that. I called the school and said you got super sick and that you’d be staying home.” Steve explained as the stereo changed from New Order to Modern English’s ‘ _I Melt With You_ ’.

“ Well...what about you?” Jonathan asked as he relaxed back into Steve’s unbelievably comfortable bed.

“I couldn’t care less about missing school.” Steve admitted with a shrug.

He finally sat down on the bed, directly next to where Jonathan’s legs hid under the covers. The two looked at each other in comfortable silence. Steve smiled, causing Jonathan to awkwardly chuckle in response, making Steve laugh a little in return.

“Your morning voice is a lot sexier than I was expecting it to be.” Steve said right as the second chorus of the song broke out.

Jonathan felt himself get exponentially hotter under the blankets, quickly kicking them off as he ignored the compliment.

“Hey, I’m serious. You sound surprisingly attractive for just waking up.” Steve put a hand on Jonathan’s lower thigh.

“Steve...” Jonathan trailed.

Right as Steve had gotten as close to Jonathan as he physically could without actually making contact, Tainted Love’s infamous synth blared through the stereo speakers.

“Ah, perfect timing.” Steve whispered before roughly pressing his lips against Jonathan’s.

The heat went straight to places he didn’t want to think about, so instead he focused on Steve’s movements. However, Jonathan quickly realized that was also something he didn’t want to focus on.

Steve pushed Jonathan into the bed, placing his hands on the sides of his shoulders and doing the same with his legs. Steve moved slowly from Jonathan’s mouth to his naked collarbones, which was when Jonathan realized he had been shirtless this entire time.

“Can I?” Steve asked as he moved down to Jonathan’s chest.

Jonathan didn’t know what Steve was asking permission for, but he trusted him enough to nod his head even if he didn’t know what he was agreeing to. Coincidentally, the lyrics “ _don’t touch me please i cannot stand the way you tease_ ” blasted through the speakers, and Jonathan felt Steve laugh against his skin at the irony.

Jonathan swallowed nervously, unsure of what was to come. He felt like he blinked and suddenly everything changed. When his eyes opened, Steve’s tongue was loosely sticking out his mouth. Jonathan started to sweat, finally realizing what was going on. Then he felt it, oh god he felt it. Steve teased his nipple with his tongue, and not long after used his hand to play with the other one.

‘ _Pictures Of You_ ’ b y The Cure began playing, and Jonathan started to lose himself in the moment.

Small noises of satisfaction escaped his throat, and Steve listened closely. He thought they mixed perfectly with the soft guitar of the music he was no longer paying much attention too. He looked up at Jonathan, and holy shit, he wanted to grab a camera and take a million photos of him.

Surprisingly, that’s exactly what he did.

Steve reached for Jonathan’s camera that he had put on the bedside table, he mentally thanked Steve-of-the-past for doing so. 

“What are you..?” Jonathan asked, huffing a little in disappointment.

“Calm down you brat.” Steve teased as he put the camera up to his face.

He reached for Jonathan’s nipple again and smirked from behind the camera.

“Holy shit.” Steve whispered as he snapped the first picture.

“Steve!” Jonathan squealed, “And you call me a perv.” He whined sarcastically.

“Sorry you just look...so good.” Steve felt like he was in a trance, and he didn’t want to get out of it. He pinched Jonathan’s right nipple as he snapped another picture, watching his face contort through the small lense of the camera. Eventually moving his hand down his chest and getting a few more, much to Jonathan’s embarrassment.

“Can you put that away, it’s making me feel weird.” Jonathan said shyly as he crossed his arms.

“You like having your picture taken like this, huh Byers?” Steve smirked as he took another.

“No, it’s quite the opposite really.” Jonathan lied a little. He did find it arousing to have his picture taken in such a dirty way by Steve, but not now.

Steve smiled softly before setting the camera back on the table, leaning down towards Jonathan’s face again.

“You look amazing.” Steve whispered against his neck.

“Stop it.” Jonathan turned his head away to avoid Steve, but ended up giving him the advantage.

Steve bit down on the soft skin of Jonathan’s neck, surrounding himself with the noises coming the boy above him. The bite wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but it was definitely enough to get a reaction out of Jonathan.

“Steve...wait.” Jonathan felt conflicted about the situation. On one hand he really wanted to slow things down and build up a normal relationship, but on the other, Steve’s mouth felt way too good against his neck and he didn’t really want him to stop.

Although Steve was certainly enjoying himself, he realized how nervous Jonathan sounded and quickly sat back.

“S-sorry, I kinda got lost in the moment there.” Steve apologized as he watched Jonathan sit up as well.

“It’s ok, it... it felt good I just...” Jonathan trailed off, but Steve knew what he meant.

“ I know you still have like, 2 weeks to get your pictures in by... but I have a day planned out for us. Well, for you mostly.” Steve spoke up as he slid closer to the other boy once again.

“What? You made plans already? You didn’t have to do anything special!” Jonathan ramblers, failing to notice Steve’s lips coming in contact with his neck again.

“Steve!” He jumped back, stretching his arms out between them to keep Steve away. 

“Can’t help myself Byers.” Steve admitted nonchalantly as he attempted to go back in.

“Well get used to it Harrington, because you’re not allowed to do anything to me until we get these pictures in.” Jonathan teased. He playful shoved the older boy away as he got out of bed.

Steve just grinned as he turned to watch Jonathan’s every move. “So no kissing?” he complained.

“Nope. No kisses, no where.” Jonathan responded as he gathered some clothes off the floor, not realizing that most of the items weren’t his.

“What about hugs?”

“Quick friendly hugs only, and no hugging from behind.” Jonathan stated as he pulled on a pair of jeans that belonged Steve, but he didn’t notice.

“How about hand holding?” Steve begged as he sat on the bed.

“Only when I say so, and not in public. ” Jonathan compromised.

“Oh come on! I’m working with nothing here! I get needy sometimes Byers, you’re lucky i’m even admitting that to you.” Steve complained as he stood up from the bed.

“Quit whining and tell me what the plans are for today.” Jonathan laughed as he packed his camera into its case, preparing for the day ahead of him.


	9. Foreboding

After getting showered and dressed, the two packed their things for the day and headed out to the first location. Steve decided to keep everything a surprise and let Jonathan figure things out on the way.

“So... not the quarry?” Jonathan asked for the second time since getting in the car.

“No, it’s some place much better.” Steve smirked as he teased Jonathan with the small piece of information.

Steve could tell that Jonathan didn’t like the fact that he was keeping secrets, he made it so blatantly obvious. Although he was singing along to The Smith’s ‘ _This Charming Man_ ’, his bottom lip stuck out and his eyebrows were furrowed in a pout.

It was about a 30 minute drive, and yet Jonathan complained about how far away it seemed every minute or so.

“Aaaand we have arrived!” Steve announced as he pulled into a nice looking strip mall on the side of a main road in a town Jonathan didn’t know the name of.

“Uh... where are we?” Jonathan asked as he looked around.

“I heard there was a few record stores in this place, nice ones too, so I wanted to take you.” Steve smiled as he continued to give Jonathan vague answers.

“But I- I don’t own a record player. I just have a stereo that plays cassettes.”

Steve couldn’t help but laugh at Jonathan’s never-ending questions. Jonathan gave him a confused look as he waited for an explanation.

“Don’t worry about it, I got it covered.” Steve smiled as he got out the car, eventually Jonathan followed.

The two walked up to the first store, there was a sign on the small building that read “Records and Vinyls”.

Jonathan walked in first, embracing the smell of slightly moldy carpets and old cardboard vinyl sleeves. He looked around the store; the vinyls were categorized by genre then alphabetized by band or artist name. Jonathan headed straight for the rock section and flipped through the boxes labeled “C”.

“I think I can guess what you’re looking for.” Steve teased. “But I’d like to help, so what should I keep an eye out for?”

Jonathan shrugged as he moved from the first box to the next. “Well, I’m looking for The Clash and The Cure right now. You can go look around for... The Smiths, or Psychedelic Furs, I like them a lot. Maybe New Order too?” Jonathan listed.

Steve tried to remember all of the names as he went off on his own, leaving Jonathan by himself. He made his way over to the “S” section, looking for The Smiths.

After a minute or two, Jonathan came up quickly behind him. “Steve!” He said excitedly.

Steve jumped and grabbed his heart as he turned to look at the shorter boy. “Jeez Byers, you almost have me a heart attack!” He said through small breaths.

“Yea yea, look what I found!” His voice filled with joy. Jonathan then held up several records in his small hands. He set them down on a nearby table and spread them out for Steve to see. There were three records for The Clash, one for The Cure, and two for David Bowie.

“Wow, you struck gold Byers!” Steve said as he picked up a few to analyze.

“It’s amazing! Have you found anything for The Smiths yet?” He asked.

After explaining that he was only halfway through the “S” section, Steve asked for Jonathan’s help. They started at opposite ends of the section and worked their way inwards. Jonathan had actually found one before making to the middle, but decided it was an album he wasn’t too fond of so he put it back.

“Well you look like you’ve found enough anyways.” Steve assured after informing Jonathan that he couldn’t find anything either.

“Yea, I don’t even know how I’m going to pay for this.” Jonathan pouted as he looked down at the several records in his hands.

“I’m paying.” Steve said as he grabbed a few from Jonathan’s hold.

“N-no, I cant let you-“

“This whole thing was my idea, I’m paying.” Steve stated as he walked up to the front counter.

Jonathan figured that no amount of arguing would convince Steve to let him pay, so he dropped it. Arguing with Steve was like talking to a wall, and Jonathan learned that very quickly.

-

After checking out, the two hopped back into Steve’s car and drove off to get food. Jonathan said he’d be fine with fast food, but Steve quickly threw that idea out the window. Apparently he had something else planned.

“At least let me chip in a little bit for lunch.” Jonathan argued.

“No Byers, today is your day. You’re not spending a single penny on anything.” Steve said, clearly wanting the debate to end.

Jonathan just shrugged and sat back into the seat. Steve turned the radio up a few notches, Mötley Crüe’s ‘ _Too Young To Fall In Love_ ’ booming through the speakers.

“Damn, I love this song!” Steve sat up as he turned the volume almost all the way up.

“Motley Crue? I didn’t take you a metal kind of guy.” Jonathan laughed through his words.

Steve stopped singing for a second to answer, “Its _hair_ metal , Byers .  Is it really that unbelievable?” he said before jumping right back into song.

Jonathan just shook his head as he tapped his feet along to the beat and laughed at Steve’s atrocious singing.

-

They arrived at a diner, but it looked much better than the one in Hawkins. It was much bigger, and there was a greenhouse on the side with a few benches inside. Jonathan looked at the flashing sign that was mounted to the front of the building as he walked next to Steve.

“I know you like diners, and I didn’t want to bring you to some run-down dump like the one in Hawkins. I found this one on the map and figured we give it a shot!” Steve explained as they walked up the short steps leading to the entrance.

Steve politely stepped in front of Jonathan just to open the door. Mirroring a doorman, he opened the tall glass doors and bowed as he waved his hand to let Jonathan in, smirking up at him as he walked inside.

The diner was more packed than Steve was expecting, and he toke note of how Jonathan crosses his arms and started to slouch. Steve knew Jonathan didn’t like crowds, and he assumed that being with another boy made it worse.

“Hey, I got us a table by the window in the corner. No one is back there, so we can talk... like, _really_ talk .” Steve assured the younger boy as he rubbed his shoulder.

When they sat at the table, Jonathan hid behind the tall menu. He felt his checks go up in flames and his hands get sweaty, god how he hated his body sometimes. He tried to relax and started to read the menu to distract him.

“Jonny?” He heard from the other side of the paper that was once between them.

“Huh?” No one has ever called him that, and it wasn’t that he hated it, it just made him feel weird to hear it come from Steve.

As Jonathan tilted the menu down and peered over the top, his nose grazing the edge, he saw a flash.

“Steve!?” Jonathan panicked quietly, “Where the hell did you get that from?”

Jonathan asked as he watched Steve put the camera, _his_ camera , down on the table. Steve was smiling in triumph, feeling a sense of accomplishment for capturing Jonathan Byers on camera.

“You brought it with you today. I’ve been dying to take a picture of you all day, and I think I got the perfect one. But we’ll see, I still have one more surprise for you after this.” Steve said with a bright smile.

Jonathan wanted to be mad, he wanted to give Steve a piece of his mind for using his camera. But he just couldn’t. It was innocent and sweet, and Jonathan felt his chest warm up as he took in Steve’s words.

He just shrugged it off as he pulled the camera over to his side of the table, his thumb running over the lens.

“In ready to order when you are.”

-

They left the diner about an hour after arriving. Towards the end of their breakfast, Steve could see how exhausted Jonathan looked and took that as a sign to head out.

“One more surprise.” Steve reminded as they entered the car once again.

“I hope it’s my house because I’m so damn tired.” Jonathan mumbled, only half joking.

“Nope, but i’ll take you home afterwards, I promise.” Steve said calmingly as he looked over at the other boy.

Jonathan was reclined in the leather seat, using his right hand as a makeshift pillow. His eyes were lightly closed and his mouth was open just enough to see his front teeth shine through. Steve probably would’ve crashed if he looked too long, luckily he pulled himself out of the trance Byers always seemed to lure him into and focused on the road.

-

“Byers! Jonathan! Hey, get up!” Steve whisper-yelled as he shook the sleeping boy awake.

“Wh-where are we?” Jonathan mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.

“Your next surprise. Now hurry up, and get your camera.” Steve said quickly as he walked away from the passenger side of his car.

Confused, and still tired, Jonathan clumsily got out the car and grabbed his camera off the floor on the way out.

“This way, follow me.” Steve turns around to say.

Jonathan cautiously trails behind Steve as he walks into the roadside forest. He assumes Steve knows where he’s going, he’s looking around confidently and eventually finds a pathway winding through the trees.

“Here we are!” Steve announces as he stands up straight after emerging from the trees.

Jonathan slowly walks out from behind him and takes on the scene. A noisy creek making its way through the shrubbery of the forest, on the other side there are huge rocks and piles of sand and dirt that eventually fade into a field.

“Steve, this is...” Jonathan begins to say, but he trails off. His eyes following the beautiful path of the creek and analyzing every plant and creature they can see.

“Beautiful? Yea, it sure is.” Steve says triumphantly as he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his tight jeans. “Found this place by accident. I was out driving late one night and I caught a glimpse of the moon reflecting in the water and I just had to check it out.” Steve told.

Jonathan smiled softly, he closed his eyes and tuned into the sounds of the water gently rushing through the creek, as well as breathing in the crisp air before exhaling and opening his eyes again. He looked over at Steve, who’s head whipped around away from Jonathan’s direction.

“I caught you Steve.” Jonathan laughs.

“Oh, what a shame. Darn, I should be more careful next time.” Steve whined sarcastically, making Jonathan laugh even more. “Now, do you want some pictures or not?” He finally asked.

-

“Honestly Steve, I think some of these have some real potential for the contest. Like this one right here. You got a perfect combination of my silhouette and still being able to see the details of the clothes and my hair.” Jonathan praised as he shuffled in his seat.

“Oh please, you’re the one who looks amazing. I barely have to try to get a good picture with you being naturally pretty.” Steve said absentmindedly as he focused on the road.

Jonathan was quiet for a second or two, before looking at Steve and asking “You think I’m pretty?”

Steve awkwardly chuckled and glanced at him quickly, obviously flustered. “Well I... objectively speaking you’re... a pretty attractive guy, Byers.” Steve stuttered in response. 

Jonathan hid a smile as he turned to look out the window. “You’re not too bad yourself Harrington.” He says quietly.

-

The car pulls into the Byers’ driveway with a squeak of the breaks, Steve curses and mutters to himself how he needs to get them fixed. After parking, they argue about whether Steve should walk him up to the door or not. Jonathan loses, and Steve proudly walks behind him as they make their way to the front door.

“Thank you, for everything.” Jonathan says shyly as he lifts the bags containing the records Steve bought him, as well as the leftover breakfast that Steve had also paid for. “I don’t know how I could repay you for doing all of this for me but, thank you.” Jonathan repeats.

“Well I mean, there is  _something_ you could give me.” Steve says knowingly before tapping a finger to his lips.

“You are insufferable, Steve Harrington.” Jonathan rolls his eyes as he sets down his bags. He leans up and wraps his arms around Steve’s neck.

He goes in to kiss him on the cheek, but Steve moves his head at the last millisecond and catches Jonathan’s lips. The shorter boy jumps in shock, but melts into the kiss quickly. Steve’s hands make their way onto Jonathan’s back, running them up and down as he traces his spine. Steve could’ve sworn he heard, and felt, Jonathan hum against his lips, but he’s so out of it he can barely tell if it was in fact Jonathan or if it was himself.

Suddenly, Jonathan lunges backwards and just like that his arms are by his side. Steve gives him a confused look but eventually hears the sound of a car driving past out on the road. He looks out and after confirming that whoever drove by is no longer there, looks back at Jonathan.

“Hey, it’s fine. Just someone driving past.” Steve comforts him as he holds Jonathan’s cold hands in his own.

“Y-yea...I’ll see you tomorrow Steve.” Jonathan says quietly as he picks up his stuff and unlocks the door with the keys that were shoved down into his pockets.

“See you tomorrow.” Steve says as Jonathan walks inside. The door closes loudly and eventually he walks back to his car and drives home.

“Steve Harrington? Really? Dustin is gonna freak out over this.” Jonathan looks over at Will who is sitting on the couch with a huge smile on his face.

“You tell anyone, and you’re dead.” Jonathan teases, but adds a little aggression to his words. Although he knows that Will won’t actually tell anyone, we wants to make sure that no one finds out about him and Steve.

He walks into the kitchen only to put the leftovers in the fridge before heading to his room. He hears Will laugh as he walks down the hall, but chooses to ignore it. After closing the door to his room, he quickly gets changed and hops in bed. It’s only 6pm, but he’s never been more exhausted so he decides to go to sleep early.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW! I wrote a lot... originally this was goin to include chapter 10, but I felt like it needed to be separate. I have chapter 10 done and i’m currently working on 11, so updates are coming! But I hope you all enjoy the story so far, next chapter is going to take you all on a rollercoaster... and not a good one. So enjoy the fluff while you can because I have some angst brewing....


	10. End Of It All...

Jonathan Byers had always been singled out in school. Someone was always out to get him, or something always seemed to ruin his day. While he had his fair share of terrible school experiences, almost 13 years worth of it in fact, nothing compared to what he went through on September 12, 1984.

_“Hey Byers, what’s it like being Harrington’s little toy?”_

_“I guess being a fag really is contagious, huh Byers?”_

_“What’d you do to Steve you freak? Turn him into a faggot just like you?”_

_“What the hell is wrong with you, creep?”_

The insults never stopped coming that day, every second Jonathan thought it was over, it only got 10 times worse. He didn’t know what was going on, the paranoia running wild through his mind. He winced as people he didn’t even know spat insults at him while calling him disgusting things. Jonathan didn’t know how people knew, what he did, or who found out... but he knew he had to find Steve.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of the day, Jonathan sprinted out of his physics class, brushing off the number of degrading comments and slurs coming from people he’d never seen before as he searched the halls.

Jonathan quickly turned a corner and ran into the boy he’d been searching for. “Harrington.”

Although his arms were thin, they seemed to drag Steve into an empty classroom down the hall just fine. As soon as they entered the empty room, tears were flowing down Jonathan’s face.

“H-hey whats going on? What happened?”

Jonathan wanted to scream at Steve’s ignorance and confusion.

“Cut the bullshit, how do people know about us?” Jonathan spoke through gritted teeth.

“Jonathan I... I seriously don’t know, but you need to calm down!” Steve said as he tried to lay a hand on the shorter boy’s shoulder.  _Tried_ .

“ Shut the fuck up Harrington! Is this a joke to you? Am I a joke to you? Did you take all this time and effort to make me care about you just so you could throw it at my face and laugh at me?” Jonathan yelled as he shoved the hand off his should and stepped back.

Steve just stared at the mess that Jonathan was, but inside he was panicking.

“Jonathan I don’t where you’re getting all of this from but that is not the case. You need to cool it or people are going to hear you-“

“You’re telling  _me_ to calm down? Who’s the one who’s been the target of everyone’s insults this entire day? Which one of us has gone through years upon years of bullying and abuse because of who they are? Huh Steve? Who? And what, you’re afraid of people hearing us? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me? Or maybe you don’t want to ruin your pathetic reputation? What the fuck is it?” Jonathan was losing it and Steve could see that, but he knew there was nothing he could do at this point.

“Jonathan I-“

“Don’t you dare ‘Jonathan’ me, you’re a piece of shit. Go to hell Harrington.”

Jonathan spat out his last name like it waspoison, and Steve felt his chest tighten with pain as watched the other boy leave.

Steve had felt like this before but... not exactly. When Nancy flew off the handle and called him,  _them_ , bullshit, it felt almost the same. But this time, it was much worse. With Nancy, he knew their relationship wasn’t the best but it still hurt to hear her say it. In this case, Steve knew what he wanted with Jonathan. He did his best to make things right, but even if he didn’t know how, he still managed to fuck it all up.

He stood there for another minute or two, running through the conversation they just had as well as every possible explanation to why this was happening. Then it hit him like a train.

The car that drove past them yesterday. It wasn’t a stranger.

-

Jonathan didn’t care that he was going 20 miles over the speed limit, he just wanted to get home. He tried to drown out the voices in his head by blasting music through the speakers of his shitty Ford.

Once he got home, he ran through the house and into his room, completely ignoring Will and Mike. He assumed they had just gotten here due to the fact that they were setting down their backpacks, but that the extent of the details Jonathan paid attention to as he slipped into his room.

He slammed the door, not caring if something fell off the walls because of it, and turned around to punch it. Jonathan hissed at the sting that was left in his knuckles, but nonetheless ignored the slight bruising that started to form as he threw himself into his bed.

Jonathan cried, sobbed even. He didn’t care that it was stupid and pathetic to cry over someone like Steve, he should’ve seen this coming, but he couldn’t stop it. He grabbed his walkman from where it sat on his bedside table and pressed play.

Siamese Twins. The Cure.

Jonathan tolled onto his side, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing himself to sleep.

Forcing himself to forget everything he knew about Steve Harrington.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so proud of this chapter, I honestly think my creative side went crazy with it and it’s my favorite chapter so far. Thank you all for sticking with me on this story, and thank you to those who just started reading. I love getting feedback from people so please don’t hesitate to comment! Chapter 11 will be a long one so give me some time to update after this, I hope you all understand. Again, thank you all for the support💕


	11. ...Or Is It?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, turns out I like writing angst a lot more than I thought I did!  
> In a previous chapter, someone asked for a link to a playlist consisting of Jonathan’s music, so I made one on Spotify! The hyperlink will be in the very beginning so it should take you to the playlist, if not, let me know and i’ll fix it! Anyways, enjoy Chapter 11: ...Or Is It? (a continuation of chapter 10).

[Jonathan Byers Mood - playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/paigemariek/playlist/0TjjJwEYaoSquUmsD8k1kx?si=u-0reub7ROOWWypL5jP3TA)

-

Steve felt frozen as he stood in the empty classroom. His mind was going a million miles per hour and yet he felt like time had slowed down. That was until a familiar teacher walked into the room and flicked on the lights.

“Harrington?”

He hated hearing his last name at this point.

“What are you doing in here?”

“O-oh sorry Mr. Leed, I was just... um.” Steve stumbled as he looked for an excuse, but the look on his english teacher’s face told him to stop wasting time and get out.

Which is exactly what he did.

As he stepped back into the halls, he remembered the conclusion he had come to after Jonathan left; he needed to find whoever started this, and lucky for him, he already knew who.

As he walked through the halls, his stride became more confident and his eyes were searching every square foot of the school. He made his way outside to the student parking lot, and that was where he found them.

Tommy was leaning against the very car he vaguely remembers seeing flash by at the Byers house. As Steve walked over, he noticed how Carol was hanging all over him and grimaced at the way she kissed his pimpled face.

“Tommy. You piece of shit, what the hell did you do?” Steve yelled as he gripped tightly onto the collar of the slightly shorter boy’s varsity jacket and yanked him away from Carol.

“Ah Steve! You finally came back to us, how nice.” Tommy flashed an ugly grin.

“Tell me what you did or I’ll beat you so hard you won’t be able to tell anyone anything for months.” Steve threatened, gaining attention from students nearby.

“Oh come on, I don’t know anything about you and that freak. Can’t recall a single thing about the way you kissed him like you liked it. Did he infect you Steve? Do we need to get help?” Carol laughed quietly as Tommy continued to make Steve’s blood boil.

“Now you’re just begging for it.” Was all Steve said before swinging a punch from the side and hitting Tommy directly in the nose. Steve was almost sure he heard it crack upon impact.

People in the parking lot started to make their way over to where Steve was repeatedly punching Tommy in every place he could. Loud shouts and cheering came from the number of students around them, but neither acknowledged it.

Steve kept on going and going until his right hand started to feel sore. He hesitated on his next punch which gave Tommy a chance to take his first hit. His fist slammed against Steve’s left side and it made his whole rib cage shake. His vision was getting blurry and the sounds around him faded out. Then he felt someone, maybe two people, pull him off Tommy with barely any effort.

He gave up. He let whoever was holding him drag him to what he assumed was the front office, or maybe the nurse, he wouldn’t know for sure seeing as he passed out halfway there with only one thing on his mind.

-

“Um... Jonathan?” A timid voice came from the other side of the locked wooden door. It was Will, Jonathan knew that, but he also heard Mike whispering from out there too.

“Jonathan are you ok?” Will spoke again.

“Will, I’m... I’ll be fine. Just leave me alone for a while.“ Jonathan eventually responded after a few seconds.

Neither Will or Mike said anything, but it wasn’t completely silent from out in the hallway either. Jonathan listened as he heard the two younger boys talk to each other.

“Leaving him alone until he’s ready to talk is the best you can do.” He heard Mike reassure Will.

“I know, I just... I want him to be ok.” Will sounded like he was about to cry, and Jonathan felt his heart crumble even more.

They walked away sooner or later, and Jonathan decided to give himself a break from music for right now. He wanted to think, he wanted to try to make sense of all this. Most importantly, he wanted Steve.

He immediately threw that thought into the trash can. He convinced himself that Steve was a shitty person who didn’t deserve to be forgiven. Jonathan made himself believe that this was his fault, but he couldn’t be more far from the truth.

After what felt like hours of being in his room, when in reality it was only about 45 minutes, he came out and faced the two teens in the living room.

“You look like shit.” Mike blurted out. He did have a tendency to be quite blunt.

Will smacked his arm and shot him some sort of expression, to which Mike quickly apologized. But Jonathan knew he probably looked bad, what with just recently crying and all.

“Are you ok?” Will asked sweetly.

Jonathan just shrugged as he dragged himself to the kitchen, grabbing a bag of chips, and heading back to him room.

“Wake me up at 7 tomorrow morning. Tell mom I’m sorry I didn’t make dinner. Goodnight Will.” Jonathan said with his back facing the two boys as went to his room.

“What about me?” Mike chirped up.

“Goodnight Mike.” Jonathan mumbled before unintentionally slamming the door shut.

-

Going to school would be hell, Jonathan was sure of it, and he tried to avoid going at all costs but his mother had asked him to take Will to school and he figured he might as well.

“Jonathan, did something happen with Steve yesterday?” Will asked suddenly.

Jonathan’s face scrunched up in both confusion and denial. How did Will figure out that something happened between Steve and him? How did Will know that he and Steve were even talking to each other?

“No, nothing happened.” Jonathan forced himself to say. Lying to Will didn’t settle well with him, but he didn’t want to bring Will into a situation like this.

The younger Byers stayed quite until they arrived at the middle school, only saying a quick “bye” before exiting the car and meeting up with his friends. Jonathan sighed as he realized that he had to go to school as well, and regardless of the fact that he very well could’ve drove home right now, he went.

-

“Jonathan!”

He was at his locker, collecting his books for the day when he heard the familiar high pitched voice come from down the hall. He closed his locker and looked to his right to see Janet Smith walking towards him. Jonathan had never really talked to her before, only having a few short conversations with her when he first joined the photography club, so he didn’t really know why she was coming up to him.

“I noticed you didn’t come to the meeting yesterday after school.” She said as her once bouncing curls came to a stop.

“Shit! I’m sorry about that, I had to... pick my brother up from school.” Jonathan lied.

“That’s ok! Luckily when I handed out these information sheets I had an extra, so here!” Janet explained as she pulled out a yellow piece of paper from her backpack and held it out for Jonathan to take. “It has all the information about the photography contest. Exact due date for photo submissions, voting, prizes, everything!” She said sweetly as she pointed to various boxes of text on the paper.

Jonathan didn’t know if it was the brightness of the paper, the ringing in his ears that he got from listening to Janet’s voice, or both... but he felt very overwhelmed. “Oh, thanks.” Was all he managed to say before he started to walk away.

“Hey-“ Janet whispered as she grabbed his arm. “I heard about you and Steve Harrington, and if those rumors end up being lies, I’m here if you want me.”

Jonathan barely had any time to register what she had said before he watched her walk away, purposely swaying her hips and she went down the hall. He gagged at the thought of dating someone like her and moved on with his day. But he didn’t even get 3 more steps down the hall until...

“Jonathan!” 

God, why was he so popular today?

Jonathan slowly turned around to see Nancy rushing towards him. He felt comfort upon seeing her, it’s been a week or so since he’s talked to her, but as she got closer he could see a look of concern on her face.

“Jonathan, I heard about what happened yesterda-“

“Yea, who didn’t.” Jonathan scoffed as he turned around and continued walking.

“Listen I know you’re mad but I can promise you it’s not Steve’s fault!”

Jonathan stopped once again and looked back at her. She looked desperate, and sincere. He knew Nancy wouldn’t lie to him, but how would she know if Steve was the one behind all this or not?

“Jonathan, I saw him yesterday... after school. In the parking lot, he and Tommy got into a fight. Steve called me last night and asked for my help. He told me everything, so don’t lie to me.” Nancy spoke softly.

Jonathan pulled her aside into a janitor’s closet, he couldn’t risk more people hearing about this. As if there were people who didn’t know.

“Nancy what are you talking about?”

“Steve... he loves you, Jonathan. He knows how crazy it is but he really does. It’s killing him to see you ignore him and be mad at him for something that isn’t his fault. You need to talk to him. Today.”

_Steve Harrington loves me._

Jonathan’s head started to hurt with all the gears grinding inside. He was mad, and upset, and guilty, and happy all at the same time.

The late bell rang through the halls and Nancy hugged him quickly before running off to class. Jonathan couldn’t get himself to care about being late. Why rush when he’s already late? As he walked through the now empty halls, Jonathan contemplated going over to Steve’s house after school.

_“He would probably be really mad at me. What would I even say for myself? What if his parents are home? It’s unlikely, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”_

Jonathans thoughts were cut off when he found himself standing in front of his physics class. Last class of the day. He quickly walked in and ignored the teacher’s teasing about being late once again. He sat down in his normal seat in the back of the room and eventually caught onto the lesson. He made up his mind about seeing Steve after school, and although he felt like he was going to regret it, he figured not going over would be more of a regret.

-

It wasn’t often that Jonathan drove in complete silence, the faint humming of his car on the road being the only noise rigging in his ears, but he wasn’t in the mood to listen to music right now. Inconveniently, every song made him think of Steve, the good parts about Steve at least.

He drove down the familiar road and into the suburban neighborhood. He felt so out of place here, which was another reason why Jonathan always invited Steve over to his place before he could do the same.

Jonathan counted the house numbers that were plastered on the side of the mailboxes to keep his mind from running off. Eventually he read off a number that sounded familiar, and realized that he was at his destination.

He pulled into the long driveway, hands starting to sweat and legs to shake. He cursed at himself for feeling so nervous and forced himself to get his head on straight as he walked along the pathway leading to the front door.

One, two, three knocks.

One, two, three, four seconds.

Steve slowly opened the door. His eyes were dark and he was hunched over, Jonathan grimaced at how bad it must’ve been for his back to stand like that.

“Jonathan.” Steve croaked out. He didn’t sound surprised, or confused... instead he sounded relieved.

“Hey Steve. I- I came to apologize. Nancy talked to me today, about what you said to her. I’m... i’m really sorry for being such a jerk to you. I know... I know now that it wasn’t your fault, in fact, I should’ve known when it happened that it wasn’t you. I’m really sorry Steve. If you want to forget about the whole photo contest and, we’ll, _me_ then ... very well.” Jonathan, at first, didn’t even know what he was going to say when he saw Steve. But upon seeing him in this wrecked state, he found the words.

“Jonathan, I should’ve been more careful. I knew that you wanted to go slow, I knew that you weren’t comfortable with that kind of stuff yet, especially out in the open like that. I knew all of this and yet... I acted so selfishly! If anything,  _I’m_ sorry.  I really don’t deserve you Jonathan Byers.” Steve’s words came out in between quiet sobs.

“Hey, Steve it’s ok-“ Jonathan stepped towards the taller boy, resting a hand on his shoulder. “-we can talk, if you want to. We’ll get through it.”

Steve forced himself to look up, he forced himself to confront the person standing on his porch. He wanted to let Jonathan in, he wanted to finally let his feeling go, but he knew it would only scare the timid boy away.

“Yea, I want to.” Steve said anyways. He stepped aside and watched as Jonathan entered cautiously.

Jonathan went over his options in his head. Steve is a very emotional, yet incredibly guarded when it comes to his true feelings. Knowing this, Jonathan didn’t want to start accusing him of anything, but he wanted to know the truth at the same time. As he slowly followed the lanky boy in front of him up the stairs, he thought carefully about the direction he wanted the conversation to go in. Even so, Steve was a bit of a wild card, so he kept his options open. 

As they entered Steve’s bedroom and sat quietly on the bed, Jonathan Byers realized that he was really in for it now, as if he wasn’t already.


End file.
